The parasite intraerythrocytic cycle and human circadian cycle are coupled during malaria infection.

During infections with the malaria parasites Plasmodium vivax, patients exhibit rhythmic fevers every 48 h. These fever cycles correspond with the time the parasites take to traverse the intraerythrocytic cycle (IEC). In other Plasmodium species that infect either humans or mice, the IEC is likely guided by a parasite-intrinsic clock [Rijo-Ferreiraet al., Science 368, 746-753 (2020); Smith et al., Science 368, 754-759 (2020)], suggesting that intrinsic clock mechanisms may be a fundamental feature of malaria parasites. Moreover, because Plasmodium cycle times are multiples of 24 h, the IECs may be coordinated with the host circadian clock(s). Such coordination could explain the synchronization of the parasite population in the host and enable alignment of IEC and circadian cycle phases. We utilized an ex vivo culture of whole blood from patients infected with P. vivax to examine the dynamics of the host circadian transcriptome and the parasite IEC transcriptome. Transcriptome dynamics revealed that the phases of the host circadian cycle and the parasite IEC are correlated across multiple patients, showing that the cycles are phase coupled. In mouse model systems, host-parasite cycle coupling appears to provide a selective advantage for the parasite. Thus, understanding how host and parasite cycles are coupled in humans could enable antimalarial therapies that disrupt this coupling.

Alignment of Synchronized Time-Series Data Using the Characterizing Loss of Cell Cycle Synchrony Model for Cross-Experiment Comparisons.

Investigating the cell cycle often depends on synchronizing cell populations to measure various parameters in a time series as the cells traverse the cell cycle. However, even under similar conditions, replicate experiments display differences in the time required to recover from synchrony and to traverse the cell cycle, thus preventing direct comparisons at each time point. The problem of comparing dynamic measurements across experiments is exacerbated in mutant populations or in alternative growth conditions that affect the synchrony recovery time and/or the cell-cycle period. We have previously published a parametric mathematical model named Characterizing Loss of Cell Cycle Synchrony (CLOCCS) that monitors how synchronous populations of cells release from synchrony and progress through the cell cycle. The learned parameters from the model can then be used to convert experimental time points from synchronized time-series experiments into a normalized time scale (lifeline points). Rather than representing the elapsed time in minutes from the start of the experiment, the lifeline scale represents the progression from synchrony to cell-cycle entry and then through the phases of the cell cycle. Since lifeline points correspond to the phase of the average cell within the synchronized population, this normalized time scale allows for direct comparisons between experiments, including those with varying periods and recovery times. Furthermore, the model has been used to align cell-cycle experiments between different species (e.g., Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe), thus enabling direct comparison of cell-cycle measurements, which may reveal evolutionary similarities and differences.

Nutritional compensation of the circadian clock is a conserved process influenced by gene expression regulation and mRNA stability.

Compensation is a defining principle of a true circadian clock, where its approximately 24-hour period length is relatively unchanged across environmental conditions. Known compensation effectors directly regulate core clock factors to buffer the oscillator's period length from variables in the environment. Temperature Compensation mechanisms have been experimentally addressed across circadian model systems, but much less is known about the related process of Nutritional Compensation, where circadian period length is maintained across physiologically relevant nutrient levels. Using the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa, we performed a genetic screen under glucose and amino acid starvation conditions to identify new regulators of Nutritional Compensation. Our screen uncovered 16 novel mutants, and together with 4 mutants characterized in prior work, a model emerges where Nutritional Compensation of the fungal clock is achieved at the levels of transcription, chromatin regulation, and mRNA stability. However, eukaryotic circadian Nutritional Compensation is completely unstudied outside of Neurospora. To test for conservation in cultured human cells, we selected top hits from our fungal genetic screen, performed siRNA knockdown experiments of the mammalian orthologs, and characterized the cell lines with respect to compensation. We find that the wild-type mammalian clock is also compensated across a large range of external glucose concentrations, as observed in Neurospora, and that knocking down the mammalian orthologs of the Neurospora compensation-associated genes CPSF6 or SETD2 in human cells also results in nutrient-dependent period length changes. We conclude that, like Temperature Compensation, Nutritional Compensation is a conserved circadian process in fungal and mammalian clocks and that it may share common molecular determinants.

PRD-2 directly regulates casein kinase I and counteracts nonsense-mediated decay in the Neurospora circadian clock.

Circadian clocks in fungi and animals are driven by a functionally conserved transcription-translation feedback loop. In Neurospora crassa, negative feedback is executed by a complex of Frequency (FRQ), FRQ-interacting RNA helicase (FRH), and casein kinase I (CKI), which inhibits the activity of the clock's positive arm, the White Collar Complex (WCC). Here, we show that the prd-2 (period-2) gene, whose mutation is characterized by recessive inheritance of a long 26 hr period phenotype, encodes an RNA-binding protein that stabilizes the ck-1a transcript, resulting in CKI protein levels sufficient for normal rhythmicity. Moreover, by examining the molecular basis for the short circadian period of upf-1prd-6 mutants, we uncovered a strong influence of the Nonsense Mediated Decay pathway on CKI levels. The finding that circadian period defects in two classically derived Neurospora clock mutants each arise from disruption of ck-1a regulation is consistent with circadian period being exquisitely sensitive to levels of casein kinase I.

The Third International Symposium on Fungal Stress - ISFUS.

Stress is a normal part of life for fungi, which can survive in environments considered inhospitable or hostile for other organisms. Due to the ability of fungi to respond to, survive in, and transform the environment, even under severe stresses, many researchers are exploring the mechanisms that enable fungi to adapt to stress. The International Symposium on Fungal Stress (ISFUS) brings together leading scientists from around the world who research fungal stress. This article discusses presentations given at the third ISFUS, held in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil in 2019, thereby summarizing the state-of-the-art knowledge on fungal stress, a field that includes microbiology, agriculture, ecology, biotechnology, medicine, and astrobiology.

Evaluating the circadian rhythm and response to glucose addition in dispersed growth cultures of Neurospora crassa.

Work on the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa has contributed to or pioneered many aspects of research on circadian clock mechanism, a process that is functionally conserved across eukaryotes. Biochemical assays of the fungal circadian clock typically involve growth in liquid medium where Neurospora forms a spherical ball of submerged mycelium. Here, we revive a method for dispersed growth of Neurospora in batch culture using polyacrylic acid as an additive to the medium. We demonstrate that dispersed growth cultures utilize more carbon than mycelial balls, but nonetheless retain a functional circadian clock. This culturing method is suited for use in circadian experiments where uniform exposure to nutrients and/or increased biomass is required.

An intrinsic oscillator drives the blood stage cycle of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

The blood stage of the infection of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum exhibits a 48-hour developmental cycle that culminates in the synchronous release of parasites from red blood cells, which triggers 48-hour fever cycles in the host. This cycle could be driven extrinsically by host circadian processes or by a parasite-intrinsic oscillator. To distinguish between these hypotheses, we examine the P. falciparum cycle in an in vitro culture system and show that the parasite has molecular signatures associated with circadian and cell cycle oscillators. Each of the four strains examined has a different period, which indicates strain-intrinsic period control. Finally, we demonstrate that parasites have low cell-to-cell variance in cycle period, on par with a circadian oscillator. We conclude that an intrinsic oscillator maintains Plasmodium's rhythmic life cycle.

The cell-cycle transcriptional network generates and transmits a pulse of transcription once each cell cycle.

Multiple studies have suggested the critical roles of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) as well as a transcription factor (TF) network in generating the robust cell-cycle transcriptional program. However, the precise mechanisms by which these components function together in the gene regulatory network remain unclear. Here we show that the TF network can generate and transmit a "pulse" of transcription independently of CDK oscillations. The premature firing of the transcriptional pulse is prevented by early G1 inhibitors, including transcriptional corepressors and the E3 ubiquitin ligase complex APCCdh1. We demonstrate that G1 cyclin-CDKs facilitate the activation and accumulation of TF proteins in S/G2/M phases through inhibiting G1 transcriptional corepressors (Whi5 and Stb1) and APCCdh1, thereby promoting the initiation and propagation of the pulse by the TF network. These findings suggest a unique oscillatory mechanism in which global phase-specific transcription emerges from a pulse-generating network that fires once-and-only-once at the start of the cycle.

Layers of regulation of cell-cycle gene expression in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, transcription factors (TFs) regulate the periodic expression of many genes during the cell cycle, including gene products required for progression through cell-cycle events. Experimental evidence coupled with quantitative models suggests that a network of interconnected TFs is capable of regulating periodic genes over the cell cycle. Importantly, these dynamical models were built on transcriptomics data and assumed that TF protein levels and activity are directly correlated with mRNA abundance. To ask whether TF transcripts match protein expression levels as cells progress through the cell cycle, we applied a multiplexed targeted mass spectrometry approach (parallel reaction monitoring) to synchronized populations of cells. We found that protein expression of many TFs and cell-cycle regulators closely followed their respective mRNA transcript dynamics in cycling wild-type cells. Discordant mRNA/protein expression dynamics was also observed for a subset of cell-cycle TFs and for proteins targeted for degradation by E3 ubiquitin ligase complexes such as SCF (Skp1/Cul1/F-box) and APC/C (anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome). We further profiled mutant cells lacking B-type cyclin/CDK activity ( clb1-6) where oscillations in ubiquitin ligase activity, cyclin/CDKs, and cell-cycle progression are halted. We found that a number of proteins were no longer periodically degraded in clb1-6 mutants compared with wild type, highlighting the importance of posttranscriptional regulation. Finally, the TF complexes responsible for activating G1/S transcription (SBF and MBF) were more constitutively expressed at the protein level than at periodic mRNA expression levels in both wild-type and mutant cells. This comprehensive investigation of cell-cycle regulators reveals that multiple layers of regulation (transcription, protein stability, and proteasome targeting) affect protein expression dynamics during the cell cycle.

Reconciling conflicting models for global control of cell-cycle transcription.

Models for the control of global cell-cycle transcription have advanced from a CDK-APC/C oscillator, a transcription factor (TF) network, to coupled CDK-APC/C and TF networks. Nonetheless, current models were challenged by a recent study that concluded that the cell-cycle transcriptional program is primarily controlled by a CDK-APC/C oscillator in budding yeast. Here we report an analysis of the transcriptome dynamics in cyclin mutant cells that were not queried in the previous study. We find that B-cyclin oscillation is not essential for control of phase-specific transcription. Using a mathematical model, we demonstrate that the function of network TFs can be retained in the face of significant reductions in transcript levels. Finally, we show that cells arrested at mitotic exit with non-oscillating levels of B-cyclins continue to cycle transcriptionally. Taken together, these findings support a critical role of a TF network and a requirement for CDK activities that need not be periodic.

Connecting virulence pathways to cell-cycle progression in the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans.

Proliferation and host evasion are critical processes to understand at a basic biological level for improving infectious disease treatment options. The human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans causes fungal meningitis in immunocompromised individuals by proliferating in cerebrospinal fluid. Current antifungal drugs target "virulence factors" for disease, such as components of the cell wall and polysaccharide capsule in C. neoformans. However, mechanistic links between virulence pathways and the cell cycle are not as well studied. Recently, cell-cycle synchronized C. neoformans cells were profiled over time to identify gene expression dynamics (Kelliher et al., PLoS Genet 12(12):e1006453, 2016). Almost 20% of all genes in the C. neoformans genome were periodically activated during the cell cycle in rich media, including 40 genes that have previously been implicated in virulence pathways. Here, we review important findings about cell-cycle-regulated genes in C. neoformans and provide two examples of virulence pathways-chitin synthesis and G-protein coupled receptor signaling-with their putative connections to cell division. We propose that a "comparative functional genomics" approach, leveraging gene expression timing during the cell cycle, orthology to genes in other fungal species, and previous experimental findings, can lead to mechanistic hypotheses connecting the cell cycle to fungal virulence.

Investigating Conservation of the Cell-Cycle-Regulated Transcriptional Program in the Fungal Pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans.

The pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus neoformans causes fungal meningitis in immune-compromised patients. Cell proliferation in the budding yeast form is required for C. neoformans to infect human hosts, and virulence factors such as capsule formation and melanin production are affected by cell-cycle perturbation. Thus, understanding cell-cycle regulation is critical for a full understanding of virulence factors for disease. Our group and others have demonstrated that a large fraction of genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is expressed periodically during the cell cycle, and that proper regulation of this transcriptional program is important for proper cell division. Despite the evolutionary divergence of the two budding yeasts, we found that a similar percentage of all genes (~20%) is periodically expressed during the cell cycle in both yeasts. However, the temporal ordering of periodic expression has diverged for some orthologous cell-cycle genes, especially those related to bud emergence and bud growth. Genes regulating DNA replication and mitosis exhibited a conserved ordering in both yeasts, suggesting that essential cell-cycle processes are conserved in periodicity and in timing of expression (i.e. duplication before division). In S. cerevisiae cells, we have proposed that an interconnected network of periodic transcription factors (TFs) controls the bulk of the cell-cycle transcriptional program. We found that temporal ordering of orthologous network TFs was not always maintained; however, the TF network topology at cell-cycle commitment appears to be conserved in C. neoformans. During the C. neoformans cell cycle, DNA replication genes, mitosis genes, and 40 genes involved in virulence are periodically expressed. Future work toward understanding the gene regulatory network that controls cell-cycle genes is critical for developing novel antifungals to inhibit pathogen proliferation.

The Local Edge Machine: inference of dynamic models of gene regulation.

We present a novel approach, the Local Edge Machine, for the inference of regulatory interactions directly from time-series gene expression data. We demonstrate its performance, robustness, and scalability on in silico datasets with varying behaviors, sizes, and degrees of complexity. Moreover, we demonstrate its ability to incorporate biological prior information and make informative predictions on a well-characterized in vivo system using data from budding yeast that have been synchronized in the cell cycle. Finally, we use an atlas of transcription data in a mammalian circadian system to illustrate how the method can be used for discovery in the context of large complex networks.